Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said this was the body's "last chance to save the two-state solution."

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution upgrading Palestine to a “non-member observer state,” from a “non-member observer entity.”

In remarks to the Assembly before the vote, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said this was the body’s “last chance to save the two-state solution.”

“We did not come here seeking to delegitimize a state established years ago, and that is Israel. Rather we came to affirm the legitimacy of a state that must now achieve its independence and that is Palestine,” Abbas said.

“The moment has come for the world to say clearly: enough of aggression, enough with settlements and occupation,” Abbas said.

The final vote was 138 in favor, nine opposed, with 41 abstentions.

Following the vote, US Ambassador Susan Rice said, “Today’s unfortunate and counterproductive resolution places further obstacles in the path for peace, that is why the Untied States voted against it.”

Rice condemned the resolution as objectionable because it was “unilateral,” which is a strange word to describe a measure in accord with an overwhelming international consensus.

While the resolution does not grant Palestine full statehood, it does give Palestinians access to other UN bodies like the International Criminal Court, where Palestinians were previously prohibited from bringing Israel to court for its war crimes on the grounds that they lacked jurisdiction.

The vote seemed to hinge on this aspect of Palestine’s new status. The US and Israel led an effort to get the PLO to include a clause prohibiting Palestine from bringing Israel to the ICC, which was revealing, because if they truly believed Israel hadn’t committed war crimes, such an effort wouldn’t be necessary.

A secret State Department diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks revealed that one of the primary reasons behind Israeli objections to Palestinian statehood is that lack of statehood keeps Palestinian territories outside the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Israel has not only been accused of war crimes in its last two attacks on Gaza, but also its policy of colonizing Palestinian land in the West Bank has been roundly condemned as a violation of international law, and in fact, war crimes.

Aside from this objection, the US and Israel, who lead the puny opposition to Palestinian statehood, claim such a settlement must be reached by direct negotiations. But decades of the defunct peace process has revealed it to be merely a scheme to provide Israel with more time to colonize additional Palestinian land.

Now U.S and Israel have to deal with UN, now is time for UN to have a active roll protecting the Palestinians rights as a Palestinians, not a refuges or a second hand nationals under a occupation force or anything in that direction. Israel's needs to be prepared, so as USA government to answer to the people of the world, not their body body's at UN. It is time for Israel to understand the fact that Israel cannot bully anyone while taking the Palestinians as their hostage. It is time for ICC to start the process prosecuting those who have committed war crime in Palestinian land, those who have supported and supplied Israel with weapons used in all the crimes committed by Israel.

The US once again shows itself to be a tool for its little sodomite- israel and ends up at the moral and intellectual level of some island no one's ever heard of. So that's the "leadership" the inbred retarded DC establishment elite babbles on about? Makes you want to look forward to the era of the Chinese empire when the US will be relegated to playing the pathetic role that England likes to play hanging on the US to absorb some aura of power. Or maybe the US will be the next nauru on the way to utter irrelevancy on the world stage. But that's what you get when your de facto Secretary of State is called netenyahoo.

Just look at the Nay sayers list of 9. The USA is in great company. If that does not open many eyes in the good old USA, nothing will. Lets call it the list of SHAME, or the , what do you call a 09 pointed something, of evil.

Golda Meir tried to define the Palestinians out of existence with her statement that there is no such thing as a Palestinian; however, the Palestinaisn defined themselves and their nation without the need to consult Israel or the United States, whose government is as much an Israali occupied territory as is Gaza, and whose polies were recently expressed by Newt and Mitt as agreeing with Godal Meir. Now that the Palestinians have defined themselves and their nation and most of the world agrees, it is the Israael/United States axis of aggression and occupation that has been recognized as the war criminals that they are. Long live Palestine. And may justice prevail.

The next move we can probably expect to see in this gambit will be the US/Israel attempting to subvert the ICC so that when the Palestinians do bring charges against Israel for war crimes the ICC will be weakened and unable to prosecute. It should be obvious to the US/Israel monolith that there is nothing they can do now to stop the eventual full recognition of Palestine as a full-partner State – and with that all the legal tools available to them to thwart the plans of the Israelis of genocide and confiscation of all the Palestinian lands.

It is not interesting that you don't see UK and Australia rather disgusting. I don't know what assurances Abbas has given UK and its extension Australia so they appear among the 'newly independent countries of East Europe' to abstain, however, I know majority of the East European 'countries' including Albania and Bosnia/Croatia/ abstained to show the nature of their puppet government. Czech Republic is 100 percent in the pocket of imperialism and Zionism like Canada. Germany, shame on her, abstained too and showed Germany is a petty ZIONIST STATE.

Even Georgia , Azerbaighan and as far as I know Maldavia have abandoned the "chosen". I wonder why Ukraine was absent during the vote. The whole world has now turned on that rogue state which has brought so much greif and misery to the world. Only US and Canada remain as supporters.The equivalent of 30 pieces of silver bought out the Czecks. Shame on those 3 countries.

I still think that the final solution will have to be one state with one person one vote. The Israeli's could set up a segregated society with separate schools neighborhoods even drinking fountains. Provided it is really separate but EQUALl there will be no objection from the Christians and Moslems.

The great danger now is that Israel will resort to the Sampson Option.

Remember Yitzhak Rabin? He was commander of the army, told his soldiers to break the legs of the youth of Intifada. Quite a hawk, a cruel hawk. Yet when he started to negotiate peace, he was killed by his own people. That is how extreme the Zionist population is. When Western hawks mouth negotiations, what they mean is negotiation where Palestinians give up all rights to the Israelis and bend over. We bystanders who have no axe to grind are sickened by the coninue Iron Heels of Israel who talk peace but set pre-condition after pre-conditions. The simple case of the west implementing a vote supposedly to let the Palestinian people decide. When they voted for Hamas, suddenly there was no more talk of democracy. Instead they allowed Israel to punish the whole of the Palestinians in food and medicine boycott for the last 3 years no. Justice Colonial style.

[…] UN Votes in Favor of Upgrading Palestinian Status: While the resolution does not grant Palestine full statehood, it does give Palestinians access to other UN bodies like the International Criminal Court, where Palestinians were previously prohibited from bringing Israel to court for its war crimes on the grounds that they lacked jurisdiction. […]

It is obvious that the United States and Canada are out of step with the world community and urgently need to recalibrate their middle east policy. The Canadian vote came as a total surprise.
The time has come for the international community to stop the Israeli aggression and the proposed
construction of 3000 new illegal settlememnts on the West Bank and in Jerusalem. Israeli terrorism
must be halted immediately and, if need be, forcefully. Not by means of war but by means of an international boycot of this belligerent nation. Time to draw a line in the sand.

[i]"Makes you want to look forward to the era of the Chinese empire when the US will be relegated to playing the pathetic role that England likes to play hanging on the US to absorb some aura of power."[i/]

I doubt that will happen. China has shown no interest in becoming an expansionist power or seek to attain "full spectrum dominance" in order to achieve absolute control over the entire world.

Instead China simply invests its money where it is welcome and thereby makes friends where others have created ill will.